re-"languages without pronouns"

[claude hagege]

   I think Elizabeth's query calls for a clear distinction between pronouns proper (stressed or full forms) and personnal indices (unstressed , or toneless, etc., depending on the language). French 3SG lui is a pronoun, whereas il (subject), le (object), lui ("dative", unstressed, or rather proclitic, since I would'nt readily speak of stress in the case of a monosyllable), etc. are personal indices. They are historically derived from Latin deictics, not from Latin nouns. In many other languages, the pronouns have a nominal origin, which  is still perceptible, or very clear (Japanese wata(ku)shi, kimi, etc.; Thai; Khmer; many already mentioned Austronesian languages; etc.). In such languages, the use of pronouns as indices is less frequent (if only because their polysyllabic structure makes them less handy), but it can become frequent, denoting a strong integration in the actancy system (agents, patients, adverbial complements, etc.), e.g. in Vietnamese (anh, ong, em, etc.). In an inflectional language like Polish, we see that pan, pani etc. is inflected for case as well as for gender, and does not mean "Sir" or "Mrs" any longer when used as a personal index. In other Indo-european languages, pronouns and indices having a nominal origin, such  as Italian lei, Spanish usted, Port. o senhor/a senhora (note the nominal gender endings), Dutch U, Hungarian maga, Hindi ap, etc., are not compulsory in dialogues, provided there is 3SG  (or, for German Sie, 3PL) concord, and the same applies to the (strongly polysyllabic!) Rum. dumneavoastra. The "pro-drop" issue in formal linguistics has  brought about a certain amount of confusion: the so-called "pro-drop" languages may drop the pronoun, but not always the personal index. They are not so pro-drop as they appear.


Claude Hagège, Collège de France, Chaire de Théorie linguistique, Paris
claude.hagege at free.fr
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